Birthdays are fun....

.....especially when spent with friends. I took yesterday off for my birthday and had lunch with 8 of my stitching friends - who even brought gifts! A great time was had by all! Then I went to my LNS and discovered you get 15% off on your birthday - nice. I then wandered around the antique shops, visited See's Candy shop and stopped at Kohls. Basically had a nice time.

But it all started off on Saturday when I received my Mail Art!!! It is a project being done though my Sampler Guild of the Rockies. Last spring if we wanted to participate, we filled out a form that had our interests, favorite colors, favorite designers, etc. along with the month and day of our birthday. The forms were then folded and we picked by the month we wanted to do the art. I picked a March birthday, and have until next March to get it done. My good friend Jean happened to pick my form and she mailed it and I got it on Saturday! Then, I could not decide if I should call her straight away, or just thank her in person when I saw her at lunch. So I waited until lunch and brought my beautiful mail art to show everyone.

Now I will show you all too!

Here is the front (name and address covered). Note the pretty stamp and hand cancellation by the post office. It was great fun hearing Jean tell us the reaction of the postal clerk that she wanted the stamp put there, then hand cancelled and then put in another envelope to mail. The scary part is she used the same post office I will to mail mine!

 Now the back (again address covered). Didn't she do a nice job with the angles and the motifs that show when closed??

Here it is opened, you can see the beautiful lining fabric and the pocket which had some packets of needles inside.

 

I am so pleased with my mail art there are no words to describe!!

Birthday Surprises - Picture Heavy

Recently one of my sister-in- laws (my husband’s sister) had her 60^th birthday. I sent her 60 items plus one to grow on. A made a few items and I thought I would share them with you.

First here is an overall picture of all 61 items.

I made her a money rose and a spa cloth.

I covered a mini composition book (4.5” by 3.25”) with stiches on white aida and a regular composition book with fabric and stitched her initials on evenweave and sewed it on the fabric.

I made a Swedish weaving bookmark, felt coasters and a pocket tissue holder. By now you may see a trend and purple is her favorite color.

Here is a microwave potato baker.

I thought something that said “It’s a Girl” would be cute (and chocolate never hurts).

I make her a project bag and put the materials and instructions for a crochet project inside (she recently took up crochet).

Here is a sewing kit I made open and closed.

She is a tea drinker so I made her a tea wallet (here it is closed and open).

Here is a close up of the mini notebook again showing the front and the back.

She was very surprised and happy and appreciative of the 61 things and called me right away! She got the one to grow on since I miscounted and ended up collecting 61 things instead of just 60 and I heard no complaints.

Milestone Birthday

A few weeks ago I had a milestone birthday and I don't feel or act my age at all! My college roommate and I continue to be friends even though she is on the east coast and we have not seen each other in a long time. She sent me some great socks...

Also in the box was a stuffed rabbit dog toy for Miss Maddie - her birthday is Oct. 25, but I gave it to her early...

Last but not least, my brother visited me from California. We spent a very nice 5 days togeter. First stop was a burger from Sonic...

We also visited the Denver Mint (no cameras allowed) and Buffalo Bill's Grave and Museum up on Lookout Mountain. It was a bit cloudy so the view was limited, we went for lunch at the nearby Cody Inn (Buffalo Burgers for everyone) and then went back to the museum. Enough clouds had cleared we could see the mountains, the Coors Brewery, the Table Tops and a little bit of downtown Denver. Still too misty to see much of the plains. We headed a bit west to see if the Buffalo herd was visible, but they were no where in sight. While he was here, we also checked out a few antique shops in town, ate at some nice restaurants and generally just hung out together. We did play Farmville at the same time on seperate computers and he was able to instantly give me stuff I needed, cause I was right there on-line. That about covers it for now!